On Black Friday, radical Syrian refugee crazed white terrorist with a gun Robert Lewis Dear, a North Carolina man who lived in a shack with a cross made of twigs on the wall, entered a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Not much is known about Dear, who killed three — including a police officer — and injured nine others (including four police officers) as he rampaged through Planned Parenthood and the surrounding area.

Dear, a Caucasian man who wore a “hunting-type hat” and a long coat while carrying a long gun of some sort — the type favored by right-wing open carry “activists” — is still a mystery at this point. On Friday, Colorado Springs police Lt. Catherine Buckley told reporters that not much is known about Dear’s motivations in the senseless killings. Dear also carried numerous “devices” into the clinic, but it is yet unknown if they were bombs. While there is still some uncertainty (though Dear’s motivations seem clear enough) one thing is for certain: this was one scenario where police stepped up to a dangerous situation and did their jobs splendidly.

“Mayor John Suthers said the loss of life could have been more staggering had it not been for the ‘brave responding officers,'” KKTV reported following Dear’s capture.

Conservative Christians have been celebrating Dear’s actions, praising him as a man who “saved lives” of unborn babies by attacking the Planned Parenthood facility, which does not perform abortions.

But the a true hero, the cop who gave his life in the line of duty, would disagree with his fellow conservatives. Officer Garrett Swasey was one of the men and women Mayor Suthers credits with protecting lives. He, like the hateful “Christians” celebrating the very rampage that ended Swasey’s life, is extremely “pro-life” — but unlike his right-wing compatriots, the officer didn’t feel that means Planned Parenthood employees need to die.

Swasey worked full-time as a campus police officer and was the co-pastor of Hope Chapel in Colorado Springs. “Here’s a guy who worked full time as a police officer, and then gave a great amount of time to his local church and didn’t get a dime for it,” said Scott Dontanville, a co-pastor at the church. “He did it because it was the thing that he felt he needed to do.”

According to co-pastor Kurt Aichele, Swasey was a courageous man who often responded to dangerous calls off-campus. One of Swasey’s “bedrock beliefs” was putting others’ lives before his own, he says:

“It’s not the first time that he’s been placed in harm’s way. He’s an absolute man of courage.”

“I don’t think that was on his mind,” Dontanville said. “He was there to save lives. That’s the kind of guy he is.”

Conservatives are right. There was a pro-life hero at the Planned Parenthood. This hero did have a gun. But that honor belongs to Officer Swasey, not to the crazed madman who rushed into the building to end lives. All too often, “pro-life” people prove themselves to be hypocrites, but Swasey’s actions show that he is truly someone who values all life — not just that which is convenient for his ideology.

We can disagree on the topic of abortion — but Swasey has set an uncomfortable-high bar for the “pro-life” crowd, who are currently celebrating the attack.

Author: John PragerJohn Prager is an unfortunate Liberal soul who lives uncomfortably in the middle of a Conservative hellscape.
Prager spends much of his time poking Trump's meth-addled, uneducated fans with a pointy stick and is currently writing a book of muskrat recipes (not really) as well as putting together a scrapbook of his favorite death threats. His life's aspiration is to rule the world with an iron fist, or find that sock he's been looking for.
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